An actress who fell off her bicycle and broke a leg while singing to “warm up” for a rehearsal at a Long Island playhouse is entitled to Workers’ Compensation benefits, a unanimous Appellate Division, Third Department panel has decided. The judges affirmed a decisionby an administrative lawjudge and the Workers’ Compensation Board that Susan S. Bigelow’s actions were both “reasonable and work-related under the circumstances” of her injury in July 2008. Ms. Bigelow was about one mile from the theater when she crashed in an effort to avoid a car.
The panel noted in Matter of Bigelow v. WPAC Productions, 509018, that Ms. Bigelow lived in temporary housing available to cast and crew members at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, Suffolk County, but was prohibited from singing or exercising in the residence in the morning because of rules against excessive noise. “Claimant elected to warm up vocally while riding her bike, a ‘two for one’ routine practice that, according to her, the employer approved of,” Justice E. Michael Kavanagh wrote for the court. The judge also noted testimony from the theater’s manager that warming up both prevents on-stage injuries and enhances performances, “thus benefitting the theater company.”
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